Thursday, March 18, 2010

What are you going to do about it?

It was less than a week ago that we went to The Rising in Memphis, and yet already so many great things have happened this week that The Rising stuff almost doesn't seem current.

...but I want to share and solidify some of the things God did last weekend lest they be lost in the ADHD world I live in!

I saw a group of teenagers and young adults get moved out of our comfort zones. There were so many ways this happened. From the long van ride to the interesting accomodations to the very urban multicultural feel of the conference to working outside in the cold & wet to having our van broken in to and some of our stuff stolen.

And yet no one complained. No one refused. No one asked to go home to their mommy. Actually they all embraced all of these things with joy and maturity.

I saw a group of teenagers and young adults love each other and those around them despite differences. And that was such the focus of the conference. And our group shined at this. There were no squabbles. There were no cliques formed. No one was made to feel an outcast. I don't know if this was a function of the conference or the group or the combo, but it was GREAT!

I saw a group of teenagers and young adults moved by a worship/service/celebration experience. As we went to Zion Cemetary to serve, I don't think any of us knew exactly what the time there was going to look like. And yet from the party atmosphere as we danced to Stevie Wonder's Very Superstitious (in a cemetary mind you!) to singing "O Come Let Us Adore Him" accapella as Carlos Whittaker led from the back of a pickup truck to the joy and reckless abandon with which the 450 of us there went to work cleaning up this old African American cemetary, I think we all saw a vision of what "CHURCH" is supposed to look like.

So we came back challenged to continue asking God to move us out of our comfort zones for His Kingdom, to continue loving those around us who are different than we are, and to creating a lifestyle of worshipping and serving in the same place so that this idea of "CHURCH" can continue to expand.

About Me

Life was never meant to be this way! The discouragement, disappointment, loneliness of our world are symptoms of a broken system. 180 is committed to sharing the truth that there is another way - another world that is possible. This blog is just one way that we are trying to be a relevant voice of truth amid a chorus of confusion.